#WCW : Mia Amor Mottley

In case you haven’t heard yet, Barbados has a new prime minister and we are here for her!

Mottley who is 52, becomes Barbados’ eighth Prime Minister and the first female to hold this position. Female leadership in the English-speaking Caribbean isn’t new. Mottley is the fifth female head of government following Dominica’s Eugenia Charles in 1980, Guyana’s Janet Jagan in 1997, Trinidad and Tobago’s Kamla Persad Bissessar in 2010 and Jamaica’s Portia Simpson Miller in 2012.

It’s a tough road ahead for Mottley and Barbados’ new ruling party. Since 2009, the island’s economy struggled because of the global financial crisis, which drove up the national debt and contributed to a drop in tourism, a major source of the country’s gross domestic product. In recent years, the small island of nearly 300,000 residents has also seen several international credit rating agencies downgrade its economic outlook.